Old as the island. New to you.

Herbal Wellness · Sri Lanka

If you stopped at our stand at Global Food Week, you may have met a herb you had never heard of. That’s the point. Some of these plants are familiar to wellness circles around the world. Others have barely left Sri Lanka, and one of them grows nowhere else on Earth. Come on a discovery through time.

A pharmacy in the home garden

Sri Lanka is a small island inside one of the world’s 36 biodiversity hotspots, with more than 3,000 native flowering plants, nearly a quarter of them found nowhere else^[1][2]. Around 1,430 of the island’s plants are valued for medicine^[3]. For centuries, its healers have reached for the roots, leaves and flowers growing right outside the kitchen door, in the home gardens that still feed Sri Lankan families today.

That knowledge lives in two traditions: Ayurveda, and Hela Vedakama (Deshiya Chikitsa), the island’s own healing system. We honour both, and we credit them to the physicians and families who have kept them.

Two ways of knowing

In Sri Lanka, traditional medicine isn’t a fringe interest. Ayurveda has been recognised in law since the Ayurveda Act of 1961, which set up a national Department of Ayurveda^[4]. Today it has its own cabinet ministry, state hospitals, and university degrees in Ayurveda medicine and surgery^[5]. It sits alongside Western medicine as part of how the country cares for its people.

Science is starting to look where tradition has looked for centuries. Heenbovitiya, a shrub endemic to Sri Lanka and long valued for the liver, has been studied at the University of Peradeniya, where a leaf preparation protected the liver in laboratory research^[6]. We think both ways of knowing matter, and we’re proud to bring the first one to the world.

Powders: stir in the tradition.

A powder is the most versatile way to use a herb. You get the whole plant, finely milled, ready to go straight into the food and drink you already make: a spoon in a smoothie, a pinch in soup, a scoop in a latte or a dough.

Ashwagandha

Withania somnifera

Ayurveda: stress, steadiness & restful sleep

Into warm milk, lattes and energy bites.

Moringa

Murunga

Ayurveda: vitality & everyday nourishment

Into smoothies, soups, dal and doughs.

Gotukola

Centella asiatica

Ayurveda: memory, focus & calm

Into juices, porridge and dressings.

Heenbovitiya

Osbeckia octandra

Hela Vedakama: the island’s liver herb

Into herbal drinks, soups and porridge. Grows nowhere else on Earth.

Teas: steep the ritual.

Sri Lankan homes have always kept a pot of something herbal on the go. Our new herbal tea range brings eight of those daily infusions together, each one pure leaf, root or fruit, with nothing added, and naturally caffeine-free.

Flowers: start with colour.

If herbal wellness is new to you, start here. These two flowers are the easiest way in: they look extraordinary, taste gentle and bright, and invite you to play.

Butterfly Pea

Nil katarolu

Ayurveda (Aparajita): calm & clarity

Deep blue that turns violet with a squeeze of lime. For mocktails, lattes, rice and desserts.

Hibiscus

Wada mal

Ayurveda (Japa): cooling, and a classic for hair

Ruby-red, tart and bright. For iced teas, syrups and sorbets.

Heritage on film

In our documentary series A Forest Full of Medicine, an Ayurveda physician and a leader of the Vedda, Sri Lanka’s indigenous forest people, share what the forest has always given them.